A hapless burglar who made his escape through back gardens in Wolverhampton has been caught on CCTV – falling straight into a pond.

The stunned raider was apparently unable to see the 4ft deep water feature in the darkness as he and two other men ran past the rear of homes in Penn.

The footage, taken at the house in Buttons Farm Road, shows the first thief run into the garden and jump over a small bush.

However, unbeknown to the idiotic raider, a pond lays behind the foliage and he ends up scrambling around after landing feet first in the water. A second, hooded trespasser skirts around the water’s edge as his soaked accomplice scrambles out.

He is followed by a third man wearing gloves and a baseball cap as they make their way through a neighbour’s garden.

Resident Tim Marple, aged 57, was stunned when he viewed the infra-red footage after he and his wife Hilary were awoken by their house alarm and security lights.

Education worker Mr Marple said today: “The lights came on and we got to the window and the neighbour from opposite was coming across the road shouting that intruders had gone around the back of the house.

“My wife went round the back and I went out the front and there was no sign of anybody, but my wife said it looked like somebody had been in the pond because the patio was wet.”

Mr Marple then viewed the footage and saw the trio, one who apparently dropped a knife into the water and another who left a crowbar on the patio.

He continued: “I got angry because he’d made holes in the heron net on the pond. But when you look at it now you have to have a laugh.”

“The police arrived very quickly and with two cars and a dog van.

“They managed to track them for quite some distance up the road with the police dog.”

A flier has now been posted in the area urging people to see the video, which has been viewed more than 500 times, on internet site YouTube.

Mr Marple said he had put the footage on to the website after seeing the funny side of it.

Images which show the men’s faces more clearly, and which were taken by cameras at the front of the house, are now with police.

The gang struck at around 1am on June 16.

The 26-second CCTV clip shows the burglar, dressed in light-coloured bottoms and dark top, leaping through the garden in the pitch black and crashing through the heron net, straight into the pond.

Knee-deep and apparently stunned, he stands fleetingly in the water to gain his composure before clambering out and bolting.

Seconds later, a baseball cap-wearing accomplice dressed all in white comes striding past the pond in the same direction.

Wolverhampton police spokeswoman Sarah Astbury today said the case was being reviewed and inquiries were ongoing.

By Mike Woods